The Old Duke Artonis was a bright and cheerful man after giving birth to a monster known as Chrono.

As a kid, the duke was fond of his son who absorb knowledge like a sponge and trained his best in swordsmanship and magic.

It could be said that Chrono wasn't a cold-hearted man like he is now but a boy who wanted to learn new things and isn't afraid to get hurt.

"Father, is there a limit to how far I could go?" - Chrono

"Hah. Boi..... The only limit to something is only believing you have a limit. One could go quite far if you believe yourself to have no limit." - Artonis

For the first time, this is the moment the old Duke regretted saying to the kid he had raised as seeing how excited and challenging to find his limit was something he wanted to know.

And so, he challenge everything he could to find the limit to things he could do. From knowledge to baking, from cleaning to even exploring the world. The young Chrono wasn't afraid of losing but afraid of not knowing his limit was as he began to bulldoze everything in his way on the path to become best at everything to reach the limit he desires.

He doesn't shy away from the dirty monsters he comes across and started learning their culture as he returned to the capital, baring many titles that even a king might run out of things to gift to him.

It also the moment that the old duke's suffering began as the young boy had become a young man.

"Father, I wish to challenge you once more." - Chrono

From the valiant, courageous and full of optimism, had turned into a cold and arrogant tone, Chrono had experience much in his life and only needs to take care of his father to take the title as Duke.

What comes next was the old Duke was running for his very live as Chrono was releasing his intent to hunt his father down. 

"B-boi! You can have the title, you can even the damn territory if you want. At least spare your old man of having his dignity being trampled!" - Old Artonis

"Father, you have said that if we were to inherit the seat. Us siblings were to fight it out with each other and after that, we are to fight with our predecessor. To which it is you father." - Chrono

"Well, why don't you duke it out with your siblings first? You can't just skip the tradition boy!" - Old Artonis

"Apologies Father, I did sent out a message to my older brother. However, he decline my request to fight him. He said that he doesn't want to inherit the household and passed it on to me." - Chrono

"........" - Old Artonis

The old man's brows twitch as he was filled in anger. Yet, he couldn't blame his older son since that son of his has more common sense than this guy.

[Pops, you were lying about that tradition of yours right? You can't make me fight Chrono after hearing that he somehow been fighting dragons and all that. D-dad, he can take the damn household and whatnot. Like hell I am going to fight that monster.] - Kael

Chrono's older brother, Kael, a young man who was always been a troublesome kid for Old Artonis as he tends to be busy himself with women and whatnot. Despite being such a playboy, he still an Artonis and has great talent in swordsmanship and magic. Yet, when compared to his younger brother, he accepted the fact that he couldn't best him even if he were to put effort into training.

Yet..... 

"I will not accept you disregarding the tradition set in our family. If you wish to fight with your own parent, have a bout with your sibling first. You cannot skip on traditions even if you wish to take my title." - Old Artonis

"...... Apologies Father. I was wrong. " - Chrono

The old man thought that his sufferings were soon over yet the next day had passed and.... 

"My Lord! Lord Chrono has been raiding the entertainment district and plucking down so many hidden dark establishments around the kingdom. The King requested you to stop  the young master from causing trouble as per his order." - Butler

*Spits Drink*

One trouble after another, the old Duke's sanity was slowly been draining upon this revalation as the Truth was revealed after topping the kingdom upside down, only to see that Chrono was dragging his older brother's corpse(not dead but unconscious) and tossed it to the old man.

"Apologies of taking my time to seek your audience. My Older Brother Kael has been hiding in the underground catacombs of the kingdom to seek shelter from the cultist for protection. It only took me 3 days of searching before I finally found him. Unfortunately, he had borrowed power from a demon such that I had to throughly beat him harder than usual to exorcist it from him." - Chrono

"H-how.... I clearly spend such huge amounts to even summon a higher ranking demon.....why can't I still beat my brother...." - Kael

Hearing how his older son even got himself possessed by a demon to beat his younger brother, the old duke just sighs and walk himself to the chopping block after how much effort it took his son to accomplish his task.

He didn't even try to fight as the results was obvious as even the possessed Kael with high ranking demon was unable to beat Chrono, he felt that no matter how much he tried to lessen the damage to his dignity, Chrono didn't gave any mercy and throughly beat the crap out of his own father, being publically shamed in front of the nobles.

Yet, they didn't try to laugh it off as they all feared how not only did the best spies or infiltrators they had sent to the dark society, it couldn't compare to the terrifying might of Chrono who not only destroyed the dark society and abolish it to the ground, he only took it as a side objective just to search for his older brother. 

They feared that they might also ended up like the Old Duke whose on the ground and be publically humiliated if they tried to make fun of him, knowing how useless they were at their job when the young man in front of him, did it so easily.

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Sipping on his drink, the old Duke reminise the happy moments he had with his wife when the butler whom been with him for a long time had inform him that his younger son had returned to the capital.

He was shocked at first, thinking that his son wanted a rematch but he was already informed about his son's matters concerning his accusation and he also brought his granddaughter to help him with a better educator for her.

"Grandpa!" - Aria

"My lovely Aria! Come here and give grandpa a smootch." - Old Artonis

Instead of being greeted by a cold and arrogant man, a young lovely girl ran towards her grandfather as he smiled like an idiot to see such a cute girl was running towards him.

His relationship with his younger son might be... what you say.... 'Not Good'. But seeing his own grandchild smiling at him at such an adorable way, Old Artonis was happy that he could finally see a cute child, especially a daughter whose related to him in some way.

After his wife died, he only had two sons and those two boys kept causing him trouble even after he relinquish his title as the ruler of the Artonis household. However, he finally felt fufilled as a young child, closely resembling the face of his wife, was snuggling at him.

In the future timeline on Chrono, the grandfather and child only met in the later stages as the dark energy of Aria had developed considerably that even with the parental figure of his father didn't do much help to heal her heart. His father of course tried to talk sense to him but it was already too late for Chrono to listen before tragedy struck.

'Father could help me be a better parent.' - Artonis

Seeing how the connect faster than him, it was only the incentive of Reiter that made Aria happy to see her grandparent.

Naturally, Chrono was a bit jealous at how easily they warm up to one another as he wanted to be close to his daughter as well. However.... 

"...... I'm sorry father." - Aria

"..........." - Artonis

Seeing her being polite to him, he could only just sigh in resignation as his father saw this exchange and now understand their own circumstances. 

'I see. It was quite a good chance to nip this bad sprout before it grew worse than its ripped to a bad spot early. Seeing my son looking like this does put a smile on my face but I shouldn't feel happy about this.' - Old Artonis

As a man, he wanted to take revenge for all the trouble this child had cost him all these years. As a father however, he wanted to help his son bonded more on his family and not worsen their relationship, seeing how this situation may grow worse if he doesn't intervene. 

"*Cough* Chrono. How about you leave your daughter to me and pick up your brother at a tavern? I think you might need some help since I may understand why you had come from the capital." - Old Artonis

"Kael? Why would I need help from him Father?" - Artonis

Chrono gaze his father in question as he doesn't understand why would he need help from his older brother. He understand that his brother is good at swordsmanship and magic but he didn't understand since his brother is a womanizer and causing trouble at the gambling house. But his father patted his shoulders in a warm gesture. 

"Son, he might be a womanizer but if you want to understand your wife and your child, he might be the only option you have since your relationship with your family is quite strain and might end up worse if you don't fix yourself first. That older brother knows how women work better than you so he is your only option for help. However, if he cause trouble, I can rest easy that you'll handle him fine. " - Old Artonis

"I understand father." - Artonis

It might be due to the fact that his father is closer to his daughter that his advice might be beneficial for him. Also, his father's intuition to understand a person's expression could be said that he has no complaints in listening to his father.

"Aria, I hope you behave while your grandfather takes care of you." - Artonis

"Haha Chrono. She can do whatever she wants since I want to explore the capital with my lovely grandchild. You just have to worry that your brother doesn't get involved with another cultist again you hear?" - Old Artonis

"Understood Father." - Artonis

"Goodbye Father." - Aria

He didn't have time for rest as he only stop by at the Main Household of Artonis to greet his family as he still needs to report to the king about the misunderstanding of a fake rebellion someone placed upon him. 

The royal guards of the king were awaiting for Artonis due to the incident as he didn't complained to be in suspicion for now and decided to follow them to the capital.

As for those nobles and the commander, they were escorted to the infirmary as the prince was the only person who came back to the castle as he was the main person to accuse the Duke. 

However, at the castle.... 

"Have you brought the presents for the Duke?" - King

"Yes your majesty, I don't know if it will sufice to douse the anger upon the Duke but it should be doable for now to lessen his anger." - Sevian

The King and the Prime Minister gave a deep sigh at the reports he recieved the moment the Duke arrive at the capital as he was mostly glad he didn't follow those idiots who blindly believe in his own son.

The young prince did have a compelling reason to believe the Duke's rumours to be unbelievable to imagine as he didn't experience Chrono's strength first hand. Yet....

'My old friend ain't someone you wanna mess with my child...' - King

As someone whose been childhoods with Chrono, the king was reminded of his past with the duke as he could only feel bitter at how fun yet hellish their adventure was...